The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Testing of Ethylene Oxide residue in all spice shipments to Singapore, Hong Kong mandatory
INDIA HAS made the testing and sampling of Ethylene Oxide (ETO) residue for all spice shipments to Singapore and Hong Kong mandatory from May 7, the commerce and industry ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said that a techno scientific committee conducted a root cause analysis, inspected processing facilities and collected samples for testing in accredited labs after reports on recall of india spice products from Singapore and Hong Kong.
“The Spice Board India has taken steps to ensure the safety and quality of indian spice exports to Singapore and Hong Kong. The Board organised a stakeholder consultation involving over 130 exports and associations such as All India Spices Exporters Forum and the indian spice and food stuff Exporters’ Association,” the commerce
and industry ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that guidelines for ETO treatment has also been “reiterated” to all exporters.
A government official said that rejection rates of spices are low and that export sample failures are one off in nature .“The rejectionrate of spices is less than 1 per cent of the total quantity exported by us to major jurisdictions. India exported about 14.15 million tonne of spices in FY24 and 200 kg is a small quantity that has been recalled,” a commerce ministry official said.
The official added that the sample failure for Indian exports remains low at 0.1 percent to 0.2 per cent while sample failure for imports from other countries is at 0.73 per cent. “One sample being impacted is not a big issue ,” the official said, adding that India also rejects samples from many countries at times.
The official added that ETO is a fumigant type of product that is used during transportation and that some amount of pesticide is allowed in the process of food management. different countries also have prescribed varying limits of chemicals that can be present in food, the official said.
Hong Kong on April 5 banned four products of Indian manufacturers MDH Pvt. and Everest Food Products pvt. in the country citing presence of pesticide, ethylene oxide. the products included md h’ s Madras curry powder, sambhar masala mixed masala powder and curry powder mixed masala powder, and Everest’s fish curry masala.